Listed Building record MDR12309 - Methodist Chapel, New Mills Road, Hayfield

The Wesleyan Chapel at Hayfield is a substantial stone edifice, which was erected in 1782 and opened by John Wesley. It was re-roofed in 1839, and enlarged in 1868. A gallery is carried round three sides, increasing the accommodation to 350. The style is quasi-Norman. In the centre is a bell turret surmounted by a ball. Adjoining the chapel is a day school, which was built in 1884 at a cost of £1,000. There area two large rooms for seniors and infants, and two class-rooms, having a total accommodation for 300. The average attendance for the past year was 64. (1) A Methodist Chapel dated to I782. It is built of coursed squared gritstone, with gritstone dressings and quoins. It has stone coped gables with a variety of finials. The roof is hidden. There area gutter corbels to side walls. It is a single storey high, with a three-bay front and sides. The gabled street elevation, which is north-facing, has an early 20th century central, stone, gabled porch. There are rusticated semi-circular headed windows to either side. The chapel also has c.I920 leaded lights with stained glass. There is a stringcourse band over. Above, there is a central venetian window, with a plaque above inscribed 'Wesleyan Chapel / Erected AD 1782'. To either side, and rather lower, are two semi-circular headed windows with projecting sills, imposts and keystones. The side elevations have three similar windows below, a stringcourse band and three similar windows above. The interior of the chapel has panelled wooden galleries on four sides, supported on plain columns with foliage capitals. There are box pews throughout. It has a depressed arch, with pilasters to the sides, through to an eastern organ bay. There is a high panelled wooden pulpit, with stairs to one side, set against the eastern gallery. There is late 19th century stained glass to the lower windows, including a copy of Rossetti's 'Light of the World'. The chapel was opened by John Wesley in I782. (2) The first Methodist Chapel at Hayfield was opened in 1782. Only thirteen chapels in the country still in use are older than this chapel, and it is the oldest still in use in the Manchester district [1998]. (3) It appears to still be use as a Methodist church on modern OS mapping [2010]. (4)